Date: 9th June 2011 Place: Da Lat Weather: cold because were up in the highlands We got up again just in time for breakfast. The place we were staying at is famous throughout DaLat for its amazing breakfast. There was all the fruit you could ask for, bacon, egg cooked in any way you like, peanut butter, marmite, jam, fresh baguettes, coffee, papaya juice, etc. We had our fill and then made some lunch for ourselves out of the rolls and fruit. Today we decided to explore the city on foot. We started with the famous Crazy House. It is crazy!! Stairs everywhere and wacky rooms with animal statues in that have glowing red eyes. There were really tiny stair bridges and giraffe ladders. It was so much fun to explore and its actually a hotel and someones home still. I swear whoever designed that had probably just watched Alice in Wonderland and was on mushrooms! Next we walked to the market which wasn't really any different to any other market we had been to so we didn't stop long. Instead we walked down to the lake where we saw an entertainment park which turned out to be shut down. It still had lots of cartoon statues though and we had our lunch there whilst some Vietnamese kids played with a little snake and the boys chased the girls with it. We were going to walk around the lake but it was 7km and we couldn't be bothered so decided to go on the Swan Peddle boats instead because we thought it would be easier. Wow were we wrong! My legs ached like mad. Once we had got back though we pampered ourselves by using the Hotels (Dreams) Spa. It had a hot tub, sauna and steam room all on the top floor so you could see views of the mountains and city which was awesome. A couple of guys were at the crazy house at the same time as us so we said we would meet then for a drink that night. We went over to their guesthouse and got some food before heading to a small bar with a pool table around the corner. It was pretty small and dingy and didn't have any music on but we still had a good night and I discovered how shocking I am at pool. We were playing doubles and Lucy and Ulrik won L Date: 10th June 2011 Place: Da Lat Weather: cloudy, sunny, rainy Got up with enough time to make ourselves some breakfast and then dinner from breakfast as well. The Easy Rider guys were ready and waiting for us outside when we came down and we set of on the back of their bikes heading into the countryside. Around DaLat is 1500m above sea level and very hilly so it has lots of valleys. We stopped off first at a flower farm and a coffee farm. The easy rider guy bought us both roses from the flower farm, so sweet. The coffee farm was good because we got to drink coffee J and they showed us how rice wine is made…that was pretty interesting and we got to drinki a few shots of that too! It's basically fermented for a while and then but into a huge oven where it is evaporated through a tube and cooled so it goes into a pot at the end. The next stop was a silk farm. They make silk by using cocoons with moths in them. They wash off all the rubbish around the outside and then reel off all the silk. They make loads of different patterns and then colour it by making a dye and leaving it in there for a few hours. We met the Gloucester guys again! They went to the same next stop as us as well; Elephant Waterfalls. Now this was impressive! It was a huge waterfall and a proper one not like those ones like streams. We climbed down the rocks which was so much fun in itself! Then when we got all the way to the bottom you stand in an opening to the side of the waterfall and get absolutely drenched and blown away! The force it creates at the bottom is ridiculous. When we got back up to the top we went into a shop where they were selling silk. They had really nice scarves but wanted 300,000dong for them!! About £15! That's even expensive in western terms. They really wanted us to buy them and when we said we couldn't they instantly took our green tea off us which you get given in most shops around here. After finally freeing ourselves from them we went up to a temple at the top of the hill where a big Happy Buddha sits. He was great and we spent a lot of time taking pictures around him with the guys. When we left there we went to a Minority village which is basically the really poor people in Vietnam. They live in little shacks and one of them had a monkey outside which we gave a packet of crisps too. He loved them J It was a long drive back to the City now so that we could go on the Cable Cars. They were shut for lunch though so we went to a Pagoda instead where we were the only Westerners which obviously drew a lot of attention! It was a really pretty place and overlooks paradise lake. We wondered around there for a bit. The cable car ride was good. It went really high and you could see loads of DaLat. It was a shame that it just started raining though so we couldn't get very good pictures. We crossed by the two Danish guys (Kasper and Ulrik) that we met the day before, they were going in the opposite direction but we waved. When we got off at the other end it was chucking it down so the easy rider guys sorted us out with waterproofs and then we had to go out in the rain on the bikes which was pretty cold! It was only around 2pm at this point but it felt like we had been up for ages!!! We went back to the room and watched a film and had a nap. Then of course we used the spa facilities again for the last time before going for dinner with the Danish guys, going to the bar for a bit and then getting an early night ready for an early bus journey.